Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/57

BIBLE. The Vinegar Bible. So named from the head-line of the twentietli chapter of Luke, which reads as "The parable of the vinegar," instead of the "vineyard.' 1717.

The Printer's Bible. We aie told by Cotton Mather that in a Bible printed prior to 1702. a blundering typographer made King David ex- claim that "Printers [instead of 'princes'] per- secuted him without a cause." See Psalm cxix. IGl.

The ^Iurderer's Bible. So called from an error in the sixteenth verse of the Epistle of Jude. the word 'murderers' being used instead of murraurers.' 1801.

The Staxdi.ng Fishes' Bible. "And it shall come to pass that the fishes will stand upon it," etc. Ezek. xlvii 10. Printed in ISOG. The Discharge Bible. "I discharge thee be- fore God." L Tim. v. 21. Printed in 1806. The ife-Hater Bible. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father . . . yea, and his own wife also," etc. Luke xiv. 26. Printed in 1810.

The Eabs-to-Ear Bible. "Wlio hath ears to ear, let him hear." Matt. xiii. 43. Printed in 1810.

Rebekah's - Camels Bible. "And Rebekah arose, and her camels." Gtenesis xxiv. 61. Printed in 1823.

To-Rem.«n Bible. "Persecuted him that was born after the spirit to remain, even so it is now." Gal. iv. 2!t. This typographical error, which was perpetuated in the first 8vo Bible printed for the Bible Society, takes its chief im- portance from the curious circumstances under which it arose. A r2mo Bible was being printed at Cambridge in 1805, and the proof-reader, be- ing in doubt as to whether or not he should remove a comma, applied to his superior, and the reply, penciled on the margin, "to remain," was transferred to the body of the text and re- peated in the Bible Society's 8vo edition of 1805- 06, and also in another 12mo edition of 1819. The C'axton jMemorial Bible. Wholly print- ed and bound in twelve hours, but only 100 copies struck off. 1877.

BIBLE, Illistratioxs of. As soon as the earliest symbolic stage of Christian art had passed, which is represented by the Catacombs iq.v.l, and their frescoes of the Second, Third, and early Fourth centuries, the historic stage began, when the emblems, allegories, and sym- bols, such as vine, anchor, dove, fish, good shep- herd, are replaced by scenes from the Old and New Testament. These scenes were at first used in more than their purely historical sense. In the same way as in contemporary writings, many scenes uf the Old Testament were used as symbols of events in the new dispensation; thus, Noah in the Ark, the Sacrifice of Abraham, Elijah Caught up to Heaven, Jonah Cast up by the Whale, Moses Striking the Rock, are all used, not only as prefigurements of Christ, but also as images of the salvation of the Elect. The Three Children in the P'iery Furnace, and re- fusing to adore the statue of Nclnuliadnezzar, as well as Daniel in the lion's den, are symbols of Christian martyrdom. Tliese and many other subjects always had, for the Christian masses, even in the Fourth and Fifth centuries, a meaning far transcending the historic. (See Symbolism.) But before 400 the construction of a number of great churches (see Basilica) had put before the artists an immense expanse of wall to be covered with Christian subjects, and at the same time the freedom to teach Christian doctrine had made it possilile to nuiltiply manuscripts of the Bible and to illustrate them artistically, in order by images to bring the truth home to the masses that could not read. The authorities of the Church seized art as a means of propagating and strengthening the faith.

Bible history was the principal form of this teaching: in monumental forms on church-walls, in miniature form on the pages of Bible manu- scripts. We cannot say which served as a model to the other, for both sprang up simultaneously. The Rossano Gospels, the Vienna and the Loudon (ienesis, the original of the roll of Joshua (see Manuscripts, Illuminatioxs of), all of the Fifth Century, are as early as the mosaic pictures of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome (see ilosAics) and Sant' Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna. In these works we see Bible history without symbolic intention, for the first time. In place of a few subjects, selected for their suggestiveness from Bible pages, every event that forms a picturable episode is treated by the artist. One can imagine eager Christians, unable to read the Bible, crowding about the presbj^ter or bishop as he passes down the nave of the church, labeling and explaining each picture, and so giving them a Bible synopsis. It became the custom to give up the whole of one side of the nave-walls to the Old Testament, the oppo- site side to the Xew Testament, and then to represent on the triumphal arch and apse the more spiritual subjects of Christ Triumphant and the Heavenly Jerusalem. Very soon it was found necessary to sj'stematize the new exuberance ; to exercise a process of selection : to reduce the number of subjects; so that everything essential from Genesis to Revelations could be crowded into one cliurch or one manuscript. It became the rOle of the foremost erudite churchmen to select the subjects for the artists. About a.d. 400 Prudentius (q.v. ) made a selection of 49 subjects, 24 each from the Old and Xew Testa- ments, the 49th being for the apse and rep- resenting the Heavenly Jerusalem, each with a descriptive inscription in verse. Often these subjects were selected so as to form parallel re- lated series, in which each subject of the Old Testament bore a remarkable similarity to one opposite it from the New Testament.

Meanwhile the illumination of Bible codices in the same fashion was steadily progressing, and having begun in the East, with Greek manu- scripts, passed to the West, where the work was carried forward by the Benedictine monks. The church frescoes and mosaics were mainly for the teaching of the masses, but these codex illus- trations were intended for the instruction of the teachers themselves. Certainly series like the mosaic pictures from the Old Testament in the nave of Santa Maria Maggiore seem co])ics from some illustrated Bible rather than creations of the mosaicists. The letters of Paulinus of Nola (c.400) show how he would suggest themes to his friends who were building and decorating churches; and a passage in Gregory of Tours shows us the wife of a Frankish bishop in the Fifth Century seated with an illuminated Bible in her lap, telling the artist what to paint. With the constant spread oi Christianity and the rapid building of churches, the mass of the clergy, un-